Common MYSQL Error – Can’t connect to [local] MySQL server

A MySQL client on Unix can connect to the mysqld server in two different ways: By using a Unix socket file to connect through a file in the file system (default /tmp/mysql.sock), or by using TCP/IP, which connects through a port number. A Unix socket file connection is faster than TCP/IP, but can be used only when connecting to a server on the same computer. A Unix socket file is used if you don’t specify a host name or if you specify the special host name localhost.

If the MySQL server is running on Windows, you can connect using TCP/IP. If the server is started with the –enable-named-pipe option, you can also connect with named pipes if you run the client on the host where the server is running. The name of the named pipe is MySQL by default. If you don’t give a host name when connecting to mysqld, a MySQL client first tries to connect to the named pipe. If that doesn’t work, it connects to the TCP/IP port. You can force the use of named pipes on Windows by using . as the host name.

The error (2002) Can’t connect to … normally means that there is no MySQL server running on the system or that you are using an incorrect Unix socket file name or TCP/IP port number when trying to connect to the server. You should also check that the TCP/IP port you are using has not been blocked by a firewall or port blocking service.

The error (2003) Can’t connect to MySQL server on ‘server’ (10061) indicates that the network connection has been refused. You should check that there is a MySQL server running, that it has network connections enabled, and that the network port you specified is the one configured on the server.

Start by checking whether there is a process named mysqld running on your server host. (Use ps xa | grep mysqld on Unix or the Task Manager on Windows.) If there is no such process, you should start the server. See Section 2.12.1.3, “Starting and Troubleshooting the MySQL Server”.

If a mysqld process is running, you can check it by trying the following commands. The port number or Unix socket file name might be different in your setup. host_ip represents the IP number of the machine where the server is running.

shell> mysqladmin version
shell> mysqladmin variables
shell> mysqladmin -h `hostname` version variables
shell> mysqladmin -h `hostname` –port=3306 version
shell> mysqladmin -h host_ip version
shell> mysqladmin –protocol=SOCKET –socket=/tmp/mysql.sock version
Note the use of backticks rather than forward quotation marks with the hostname command; these cause the output of hostname (that is, the current host name) to be substituted into the mysqladmin command. If you have no hostname command or are running on Windows, you can manually type the host name of your machine (without backticks) following the -h option. You can also try -h 127.0.0.1 to connect with TCP/IP to the local host.

Make sure that the server has not been configured to ignore network connections or (if you are attempting to connect remotely) that it has not been configured to listen only locally on its network interfaces. If the server was started with –skip-networking, it will not accept TCP/IP connections at all. If the server was started with –bind-address=127.0.0.1, it will listen for TCP/IP connections only locally on the loopback interface and will not accept remote connections.

Check to make sure that there is no firewall blocking access to MySQL. Your firewall may be configured on the basis of the application being executed, or the port number used by MySQL for communication (3306 by default). Under Linux or Unix, check your IP tables (or similar) configuration to ensure that the port has not been blocked. Under Windows, applications such as ZoneAlarm or the Windows XP personal firewall may need to be configured not to block the MySQL port.

Here are some reasons the Can’t connect to local MySQL server error might occur:

mysqld is not running on the local host. Check your operating system’s process list to ensure the mysqld process is present.

You’re running a MySQL server on Windows with many TCP/IP connections to it. If you’re experiencing that quite often your clients get that error, you can find a workaround here: Section C.5.2.2.1, “Connection to MySQL Server Failing on Windows”.

Someone has removed the Unix socket file that mysqld uses (/tmp/mysql.sock by default). For example, you might have a cron job that removes old files from the /tmp directory. You can always run mysqladmin version to check whether the Unix socket file that mysqladmin is trying to use really exists. The fix in this case is to change the cron job to not remove mysql.sock or to place the socket file somewhere else. See Section C.5.4.5, “How to Protect or Change the MySQL Unix Socket File”.

You have started the mysqld server with the –socket=/path/to/socket option, but forgotten to tell client programs the new name of the socket file. If you change the socket path name for the server, you must also notify the MySQL clients. You can do this by providing the same –socket option when you run client programs. You also need to ensure that clients have permission to access the mysql.sock file. To find out where the socket file is, you can do:

You are using Linux and one server thread has died (dumped core). In this case, you must kill the other mysqld threads (for example, with kill or with the mysql_zap script) before you can restart the MySQL server. See Section C.5.4.2, “What to Do If MySQL Keeps Crashing”.

The server or client program might not have the proper access privileges for the directory that holds the Unix socket file or the socket file itself. In this case, you must either change the access privileges for the directory or socket file so that the server and clients can access them, or restart mysqld with a –socket option that specifies a socket file name in a directory where the server can create it and where client programs can access it.

If you get the error message Can’t connect to MySQL server on some_host, you can try the following things to find out what the problem is:

Check whether the server is running on that host by executing telnet some_host 3306 and pressing the Enter key a couple of times. (3306 is the default MySQL port number. Change the value if your server is listening to a different port.) If there is a MySQL server running and listening to the port, you should get a response that includes the server’s version number. If you get an error such as telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused, then there is no server running on the given port.

If the server is running on the local host, try using mysqladmin -h localhost variables to connect using the Unix socket file. Verify the TCP/IP port number that the server is configured to listen to (it is the value of the port variable.)

If you are running under Linux and Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is enabled, make sure you have disabled SELinux protection for the mysqld process.

What are MYSQL Errors?

MySQL programs have access to several types of error information when the server returns an error.

The MYSQL message displayed contains three types of information:
A numeric error code. This number is MySQL-specific and is not portable to other database systems.
A five-character SQLSTATE value. The values are specified by ANSI SQL and ODBC and are more standardized. Not all MySQL error numbers are mapped to SQLSTATE error codes.
A message string that provides a textual description of the error.
When an error occurs, you can access the MySQL error code, the SQLSTATE value, and the message string using C API functions:MySQL error code: Call mysql_errno()SQLSTATE value: Call mysql_sqlstate()Error message: Call mysql_error()

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